AuthorTopic: The Chapters of QC? (Read 707 times)

Jeph has said that he thinks that there have been several 'books' of Questionable Content where the direction and theme of the strip have been noticeably different and that we're on the third or fourth right now. I've been thinking about it and have a feeling I know what they were:

"I Was A Young Californian, Unlucky in Love" - Marten's story from the beginning to the Space Station arc;

"The Library Assistant and the Interns" - From the arrival of Emily, Claire and Gabby at the library to Faye's break-up with Angus;

"The Fayesurrecction" - Faye's story from just after her brush with death up to her and Bubbles becoming a couple;

Not intending to sound like a heckler or whatever, but "Ages" is a little bit deceiving here. IMHO Chapters or Periods would be better fitting though.

You could see it like this. "Fayesurrection" probably is the most prominent section here, and I definetly like that to be a section of its own.But spanning the first section of more of half of the current strips? feels a little bit of a stretch, but then again, it's probably Marten becoming non-mopey there I guess.

It's worth noting that there is never a clear break between arcs. Sometimes, the existing arc drifts to a halt over a few score strips and the new one starts appearing in its place. So, there is usually a transition period of sorts between the two of semi-random mini arcs and moments when both main subjects are being addressed in parallel.

I don't think that Jeph actually has ever set out to have the strip so easily dividable into distinct major arcs and really it's something that is only visible from hindsight.

Going to be honest, those examples at the top just feel like they've been pulled out of thin air.

The ending of the first QC epoch has to be "The Talk", it signalled the change in the fundamental relationship between Marten and Faye, as well as the relationship between Marten and Dora, triggering their relationship. It also saw "the bit players" gain more substantial roles and storylines of their own.

The next major landmark and thus the opening of a new book would most probably be "The Breakup", because again, it fundamentally changed the relationship between the characters. It also saw several of the characters begin to mature or at least become more developed (Marten's fling with Padma, his experiment with a one night stand, Dora entering therapy and so on).

The end of the third epoch is marked by Faye's descent in dangerous alcoholism and her near death experience. It changed the core of Faye's character and forced her to take stock of herself and her relationships with everyone. She lost her job at Coffee of Doom, but managed to keep her friendship with Dora. She lost her relationship with Angus, but seems to have found a healthy one with Bubbles.

When there is a fundamental change to a character or to the relationships between characters, it changes the potential storylines for them and thus changes the kind of stories we end up seeing.

Logged

Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart but I am street smart.", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I am imaginary smart."

Interestingly, all the events you describe coincide with greatly increased forum activity.

One might even say, "blowing up" the forum. In one case, almost literally.

Actually, I wasn't involved as far back as "the talk" so I may be talking out my ass - did we even have a forum at that point? I seem to recall hearing it was mostly Jeph and a few friends originally, and they didn't really talk that much about the comic in the early days. I can see "the talk" leading to an influx of fanboys/girls, and I do recall seeing posts of the early forumites saying how annoyed they were by the comic fans...